Madagascar 2

This movie really will give you a good laugh. It is about a new adventure of the four friends: Alex the lion, Melman the giraffe, Marty the zebra, Gloria the hippo. On the trip back to New York, they had an air crash and came to Africa instead. There, they found their roots and also came across some difficulties. In this movie, there are many supporting roles. And among them, the four little penguins played an important part and even covered the other main roles for their genius and humor. From the very beginning, the four penguins spoofed the DreamWorks icon. As for their popularity, the DreamWorks even planned to make a film about the Madagascar Penguins. I'm really looking forward to it. In this movie, the film makers pictured us an amazing Africa with wild animals and beautiful landscapes. The visual effects are pretty good and impressing. And I like the theme song "Move It", really making me full of energy and feel the desire of dancing with the characters. The last scene when Marty said that "Love has no boundary", I can't agree more. And I think that this does not only apply to love between lovers but also apply to love between friends and family. All in all, this is quite a funny movie and worth watching.

I am a fan of the first Madagascar film, I know there are a lot of people who dissed it, but I thought it was cute. So when I saw the trailer for Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa, I was excited. I saw it on Friday and I absolutely enjoyed this fun family film. I think this even had a more coherent plot as well, plus how could you not love the penguins? They are absolutely hilarious and need their own movie, maybe a Full Metal Jacket with penguins! Anyways, I loved the characters so much, they're back and better than ever. They even ended up giving the little old lady from the first Madagascar who fought Alex the Lion, she has a bigger role and was so awesome to watch and listen too. I think the jokes were even funnier than the first Madagascar, my favorite scene without a doubt was the plane sequence in the beginning. But the whole story was just a blast to watch.

Alex, Marty, Gloria, and Melman are still looking to go back to Africa, everything seems to be a good and they start to fly back with the penguins as well as Julien. But the plane runs out of fuel and crashes, they are still in Africa, but bump into an animal pack where Alex finds his long lost parents, Marty finds out that all zebras are like him(imagine being surrounded by 1,000 Chris Rocks*shudder*), Gloria has a hunky hippo who is crushing on her, and Melman becomes the giraffe witch doctor of his group. Alex is about to be initiated into his pride, but one lion does not want him part of the group and will do anything to become leader.

Madagascar: Escape 2 Africa is definitely worth your watch, it's not the animated film of the year, but it was a lot of fun to watch. It kind of reminded me of The Lion King a little bit, it has a similar story. It's a great family film and is fun for both the kids and the adults as well. Although I still think it's funny that Alex is voiced by Ben Stiller and his dad is voiced by Bernie Mac, but it's all good, who knows, maybe Alex's dad just had a little more soul in him. I would recommend this film, it was a lot of fun to watch and I suggest we write in a script for those penguins! They're a blast to watch on screen.

7/10

Ben Stiller, Chris Rock, David Schwimmer and Jada Pinkett Smith are back in their animated animal roles which 3 years ago saw their zoo animals being transported to Madagascar in a typical fish out of water tale, where they had to rely on their street smarts and friendship to survive in an environment they do not fully understand. While it's the usual pop-culture jokes and witty one liners that plague recent animated films, there were some gems in that movie, the ones which stuck suck as the crowd favourite penguins stealing the whole show, as well as the madcap rave party tune Move It!

Beginning directly where we last saw Alex the Lion (Stiller), Marty the Zebra (Rock), Melman the Giraffe (Schwimmer) and Gloria the Hippo (Smith), the penguins have finally built a plane that ought to bring our merry crew back to New York, together with Julien the lemur (Sacha Baron Cohen) and his sidekick (Cedric the Entertainer), but of course should that happen, there'll be no sequel to begin with. So we have the crew crash land into the continent Africa, thereby guaranteeing yet another tale of being from the outside, but now having a habitat that's much closer to their natural environment, one which sees the animal types in question grouped together into one reserve for storytelling convenience.

Directed by Eric Darnell and Tom McGrath, who also provided the voice of Skipper the head penguin, the storyline might seem like a poor man's cousin to Disney's The Lion King, what with exiles and alpha-lions battling it out to be king of the habitat. The filmmakers had taken the opportunity to craft the backstory for Alex a little more, so that the main plot of his return to his home could be dwelled upon, with sub plots for the others to fall into place. You have Alex's return and reunion with his parents, with adversary coming from an earlier generation, there's Marty who discovers that he's no longer unique but the same as every other hundredth zebra out there, Glora looking for love with other hippos now that there's no lack of suitors, and Melman fighting his own cowardice to reveal his feelings for Gloria, as well as being appointed the witch doctor for the land.

And if you think that the primary voice cast is already A-list, the film piles on to that list with the likes of the late Bernie Mac voicing Zuba the alpha-lion, Alec Baldwin again in a villainous role as his rival Makunga, and Will.i.am of Black Eyed Peas in a hilarious role of hippo-Casanova Moto Moto (the name's so good you have to say it twice!) The songs department falls up a bit short this time round, though thankfully "Move It!" wasn't conveniently and lazily played ad-nauseam. Given the army of illustrators working on the project, you can't expect quality to drop from its predecessor, though there's nothing new to be injected into a mature presentation.

Despite the plundering of the same old family values / theme / storyline and the importance of establishing strong friendships, this new Madagascar managed to deliver on multiple fronts, joining the ranks of the few whose sequels are superior than the original. The comedy which got piled up here managed to work through the punchlines, leading to a number of characters like the monkeys and even the tough-cookie granny to steal some limelight from the lovable penguins. If you liked the original, then you'e likely to fall in love with this one.

As with the comment ahead of mine: it's all about the penguins. They should have their own movie.

We were chanting: more penguins, more penguins. At the screening we just saw, people who loved the first Madagascar movie waited excitedly for the magic to begin... I LOVED the first one. Interesting note: I liked the first one better, but my BF thinks this one has a better and deeper plot and pointed out in particular that while in the first one Gloria (the hippo) was the butt of many fat jokes, in this one she is celebrated just for being beautiful.

The whole movie is breathtakingly beautiful. We didn't see this on IMAX but I bet the IMAX version will be a treat.

Sascha Baron Cohen's King is again the hands-down favorite, I heard a ripple of joy murmur through the theater at everything he said and did, although my personal favorites (after the Penguins) are Maurice and Mort, the King's cohorts.

BF was also teasing me mercilessly because (and I'm nearly ashamed to admit it) there's one scene that had me totally teared up! Yes, I cried. Can't spoil it - go see the movie and tell me after if you know what choked me up! The film did not hold the attention of some of the very small children at the screening we saw, because some portions of the film only involve adult storyline concerning the adult star characters (Alec Baldwin, Jada Pinkett Smith, Chris Rock, and so forth) but when the little characters are on screen (the baby lion in particular is DARLING) the children present were absolutely captivated.

It's fun. It's not the greatest movie of all time, but it's very fun and children will want to watch it again and again.

The first Madagascar was a colourful and above average animated movie. I saw its sequel last night for the first time, not sure not to expect, and I was surprised. It actually lives up to the first pretty much (and almost surpasses it), it isn't as zany in terms of humour to its original despite some very clever references, but it has more heart than the first film did. Of course the plot is very predictable and I did notice one or two similarities with the Lion King, and probably slower than pace. But it is well the watch, for a number of reasons. The animation was beautiful and very colourful, even more so than the original. The characters are still great, the penguins were great fun, but Julien was absolutely hilarious here. The voice actors bring a lot of vigour into the film, Jada Pinkett Smith has more to do here, Ben Stiller and Chris Rock provide great comedy and heart and Sacha Baron Cohen is a hoot as Julien. Plus there is a sweet romantic interlude between Melman and Gloria. All in all, a fun sequel that lives up to the first. 7/10 Bethany Cox